'Orphan Black' review: Thrill ride
Tatiana Maslany stars on BBC America's series "Orphan Black." Credit: MCT
This much can be said: Series lead Tatiana Maslany wastes no time establishing her star bona fides as a Toronto street punk who, in the first scene, witnesses a professional woman's public suicide. (Talk about a fast start!) The punk swiftly finds herself assuming a different life. Make that "lives," plural.
It's a police procedural. An identity deep-dive. An adult sex-and-violence actioner. A fringe-science conspiracy. A fierce study of a mom's (moms') devotion to family (ies). And a comedy of cross-dressing kids.
It's not saying too much to rave that Maslany's punk plumbs to soul depths of a twist often seen but so rarely this resonant: the gut-check tension of leading a life you know nothing about, in a career you know nothing about, among people you know nothing about. Then, add a sketchy self. And you've got suspense so riveting, you might as well be impaled by rebar.
Oh, yeah, that happens, too.
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